WHEN I GROW UP...

I WANT TO BE... WHEN I GROW UP

It is a typical day in a class. The teacher is seated in front of his student. On the board, he has written quite a number of words. The class has just finished with a dictation. Let me add that it a stage/primary two class. Among the words is CAREER. Most of the students could not spell it correctly. The teacher using his stick pointed to that word again and asked: ‘who knows this word or has come across it before?’ The class was silent for ten minutes. Then, a hand went up in the air. It came up gradually as if the owner of the hand was unsure. The teacher stretched his head and identified the owner of that hand. It was none other than Kofi Baah, the most brilliant boy in the class yet deprived in a lot of ways. His parents could hardly pay his school fees let alone give him money daily for school.

Kofi explains to the whole class what the word meant. He receives a rousing applause. The teacher has gone on to ask what each child will take up as a career when he/she grows up. ‘I want to be a lawyer.’ ‘I want to be a pilot, a doctor, a nurse, a president, a soldier, a policeman.’ These were what the children said. The teacher realised that none of them mentioned being a teacher. So he asked: ‘Doesn’t anyone want to be a teacher?’ Juliana, a girl from a rich home stood up and said: ‘My mother said they are not paid well.’

I am sure most of us had our dreams on which career path we wanted to take as children until reality set in. Yes, the obstacles which prevent people from seeing their dreams come true. Most of us however have changed our minds so many times on what we will want as our career through the ages. Some of the reasons are that we find out later that we are not interested in a particular course which will lead to that career path, we get interested in something else, we are discouraged by our parents or we are simply confused. Apart from these, there is the situation of reality. The reality that even though you may be able to follow your dreams, you may find it difficult living that dreams because the job market is choked or is it some part which is choked?

Many of us believe that a good education is what will lead us to our dream career but we find out later on that it is not entirely the case. Because of such a notion, we go all out to work tireless so that we can enjoy the fruit of our labour after school only for it to be fruitless. It is amazing the number of people who graduate every year from different institutions with the hope of finding a job which will kick start their career. However, as it turns out, that career may take such a long time in coming or for some people, it may never come so they will have to take a detour.

It is known that most people are working in areas not because they want to be there but it just happens that it is the only available opening. I had the privilege of working in a particular institution and that is where I met an engineering graduate who was working as surveyor, finding clients for the institution. He was underutilising himself. I thought I was, but his situation was worse. After all the fees and years spent in the tertiary institution, one comes out and has to work for less. Working for less is not just in terms of the money because although it is important, as a starter, that should not be much of a concern but also in a territory where you will add nothing to what you trained at or learned in school. I agree that one must not be parochial and put his/ her eggs in one basket but one should not work, underutilising his/her abilities.

It has become so difficult in getting a job that I believe that one must be all rounded. After all, those who work in their offices also have a shop somewhere to supplement their needs these days. There are certain careers which demand that you go a particular course. Imagine someone studying to be an engineer, an architect or an environmentalist. This person has trained and invested a lot solely for that. Then after completing his/her course of study, there is no job but he / she finds himself / herself working as a sales representative or a call centre operator (no offense to these people), a job that completely underutilises the knowledge stored in that person’s brain. The expectations of this person have been crushed. How does such a person exert himself / herself expediently in such a work?

So as a child and as we grow up we all have our career paths but when the time comes to move in that direction, we realise that the reality is the ability to survive and not what you learned in school. Education is good, everyone must strive to be educated but it does not guarantee a good future. What I will recommend is educate yourself and also have a skill. It will help you in the future. I know people who when education failed to give them a job, they turned to their skills and they are earning a living instead of being jobless and waiting around for the kind of job they laboured in school for. I wish I had learned a skill.